Phenomenology

Abstract

In order to examine the relation between phenomenology and literature, this chapter reflects on the role of fiction for phenomenological method. With Husserl, we will see how world emerges as the central concept for phenomenology, and with Heidegger, we learn how literature can open up worlds for us. Worlds are given by way of various elements: air, earth, water, fire. The chapter will explore air with Rudyard Kipling before addressing earth with Paul Bowles’ novel The Sheltering Sky. For water, we will turn to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and, finally, explore fire with the myth of Prometheus in Plato’s Protagoras. Overall, literature helps us attend to the world in its various elemental manifestations and sense-qualities which we otherwise take for granted.